The door of the Atlantic Alliance is open to Ukraine and to all European democracies that want to join the military organization, its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, reiterated today in Brussels, just one hour after the president of this country, Volodímir Zelenski, announce that it has applied for admission to NATO under the urgent procedure. At the moment, however, the allies are focused on helping Kyiv defend itself against Russian aggression, an objective that remains intact despite Russia's attempt to annex 15% of Ukrainian territory.
"All European democracies have the right to apply for membership" in the organization, requests on which the allies must decide unanimously, Soltenberg recalled. "We have said that NATO's door is still open and we have shown it", "when the allies met in Madrid they clearly said that we support Ukraine's right to choose its own path and the security agreements in which it wants to participate". But "our focus right now - Stoltenberg added - is to give immediate support to Ukraine so that it can defend itself from this brutal aggression. That is our main objective right now".
Like the European Union, NATO has issued a harsh statement condemning President Vladimir Putin's proclamation of four of the occupied territories in Ukraine as part of Russia, a move they describe as "desperate" and a sign of "weakness". ", rather than force on the part of the Kremlin. "The allied countries do not recognize and will not recognize" the result of the "simulated referendums" to "illegally take over at gunpoint" the largest territory on the European continent since the Second World War. "These territories are Ukraine. Donetsk is Ukraine, Lugansk is Ukraine, Kherson is Ukraine, Zaporizhia is Ukraine, just as Crimea is Ukraine," Stoltenberg stressed in a brief appearance before the press.
The other key message from the secretary-general is that none of the decisions announced today by Russia changes in any way the nature of the conflict or NATO's determination to help Kyiv exercise its right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, however much that Moscow threatens to consider a declaration of war and suggests that it might resort to nuclear weapons if the Ukrainian army tries to retake part of the "annexed" regions. "That annexation attempt does not change the nature of the conflict. If we accept that Russian annexation and nuclear saber rattling undermine our will to support Ukraine, we would be accepting nuclear blackmail. We would accept that by threatening to use nuclear weapons, Putin can achieve what Russia must understand that it must not go to a nuclear war, it has been clearly communicated that if it does it will have severe consequences for Russia." Ultimately, for NATO, Ukraine "can continue its efforts to liberate more territories."
Stoltenberg's tone has been serious, at the height of the turn that the war in Ukraine has taken in recent days. "We are facing the most serious escalation of the conflict since the invasion began," admitted Stoltenberg, citing the mobilization in Russia of hundreds of thousands of troops, the "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric" used by Putin in recent days and the decision, today , to proclaim the annexation of part of the neighboring country, a territory that is similar in size to Portugal. "Putin's objective with all this is for us to stop supporting Ukraine, but he is not going to achieve it," the allied secretary general asserted.
And with a particularly clear and didactic language, Stoltenberg has tried to explain to European public opinion how relevant the war in Ukraine is for its own future. "If we let Putin win, it will be a catastrophe for Ukraine, because it will cease to exist as a sovereign country, but also for us. Doing nothing [instead of supporting Ukraine militarily] is a big risk for us because it will create a world in which that Putin will see that he can use force with impunity" and this will lead to "a more dangerous world for everyone".
